The Story
I made this photo of a Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) at the Observatorio de Colibríes in La Calera, near Bogotá, Colombia. The Sword-billed Hummingbird is a trap-line feeder, visiting flowers on a regular circuit. It perches with its bill angled upward to ease the strain of the heavy beak. It also hawks for insects, catching them with its bill open. It uses its bill to drink from flowers with long corollas and has coevolved with the passionflower Passiflora mixta. At least 14 hummingbird species visit the observatory’s single hectare, where the family has planted about 300 native flowering trees and shrubs. IUCN lists the Sword-billed Hummingbird as Least Concern, with a decreasing population.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/125 sec, f/5.6, ISO 400. Visits are limited to groups of 20 and to Tuesday through Saturday, because, as the founder says, the hummingbirds also need a rest from people.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) belongs to the family Trochilidae (Hummingbirds) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List
